


one rose and yet another fell

by ayebydan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, F/M, Second War with Voldemort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-12 17:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20567951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayebydan/pseuds/ayebydan
Summary: No one expected Potter to rise from the dead but that is soon put to rights. Now, Bellatrix finds herself following orders she no longer understands while protecting a child it still stuns her to know is her own. The pressure is rising and for the first time, it is on her and hers.





	one rose and yet another fell

**Author's Note:**

> For HP Drizzle fest.

No one had expected Potter to rise from the dead. Still, a seventeen year old without a complete magical education had no real chance against the Dark Lord and it had not taken long to put him down for good. There had been a battle and it had been marvellous but it now ends. Now Bellatrix moves around the bodies with a half smile on her face. A giggle slips out when she passes the body of Molly Weasley. How fun that had been! Oh, she had never expected to get such a fight from her and with such skill too! 

"Bella, don't laugh my dear. We respect the dead and mourn the loss of magical blood."

"My Lord."

"No," Voldemort hums, "You have to mean and respect it, Bella. The Weasleys could have been trained. They could have _learned_. Now all we have is corpses. And my dear you were nearly bested. Margaret was strong. And rrrreproductive. Now that power is gone. We mourn that."

Bellatrix lowers her head. She does not understand. For decades she has been taught families such as the Weasleys are mere scum. Nothing to think about. Nothing to regret. But it had taken her so many times in her lord's chamber to fall pregnant with their child. His heir. Their future. 

It knows her off....well, her own self of balance.

________________________________________

Lord Voldemort orders all the children currently wandering around the battlefield back to the castle and then has Minerva McGonagall stand before him in the courtyard. One of the Carrows limps amongst the quivering youngsters separating them into blood classes. The wind lashes around them and Voldemort seems content to see her discomfort even as she tries to hide it.

After several moments he decides to finally address her, "You fought for your ideology. One can respect that. More than that you sent the children to safety. For that, your life is spared. Now comes your choice. I respect you as a teacher. Will you carry on or will you _forfeit_?"

Bella holds back the giggle this time. Her Lord wishes for respect and if she cannot give that then her and Delphini will be cast aside. For all the Transfiguration teacher was Dumbledore's woman she was a wonderful teacher and had proved to be under the thumb the past year. 

The woman looks broken but she glances around the gathered crowd and meets several eyes before she shudders and nods, "I have always loved teaching.."

Her Lord cocks his head and sniffs, as if deciding whether her lack of respect is worth her murder before nodding. "Then take your green lions and see that they are un-wounded."

She glances up and seems stunned. 

"Address me as your Lord next time. Raise these children as if they are were my own."

She nods. Belltarix would take her head for such behaviour but her Lord merely watches and scoffs, " She will learn. They all will." 

"But my Lord...if I may say, some of the children fighting were mudbloods and halfbloods? Carrow there is -"

"Yes. But they proved backbone did they not?" It is poised as a causal question but Bellatrix knows it is anything but. Another gust of wind across the broken castle. Another stench. Another reminder. 

Bellatrix nods and looks at the floor. Death fills her nostrils and she coughs. " The Ministry was instructed to-"

"The Ministry does as I say, Bellatrix. As do all. If I choose to change my mind then I can and will because there is no one capable of stopping me."

"My Lord. What do you ask of me now?"

"See that the children are being healed equally. Not harmed by our side nor smuggled out by theirs. They are the future."

"My Lord."

________________________________________

The wind continues to blow around her skirts. Sometimes it quietens the cries of the children and sometimes it makes it more audible. Bella resists the urge to roll her eyes. Her Lord has spies everywhere and even she is vulnerable to deception and attack.

She has had to murder one or two of her own for their behaviour towards the children but ...so be it. Being so close to her Lord she did not get a taste for the battle until the very end and it was...lacking. 

Yet now it is over something feels different in her bones. She feels more joy in throwing fellow Death Eaters from the defenders of Hogwarts than she did from anything before. It suddenly seems so pathetic to attack those so weak. 

She is taken aback by the feeling.

"What are you looking at? _Crucio!_, she snaps at what might be Nott's crotch spawn, not that she cares. 

Most of them scuttle towards the Castle in fear when she tells them so. It is not like there is anywhere else for them to go. She finds a girl, Lovegood she thinks, hunched over what might have been a wall around the Herbology perimeter before. 

"Bellatrix Lestrange. Lady Voldemort," the girl smiles with blood smeared teeth, " I do hope your daughter is crying no more. It was upsetting the-"

Before Bellatrix would have slapped her. Cursed her. _Hurt_ her at the last. This time she merely knocks her out and sends her floating towards the stronghold. 

Victory is theirs now.

Her laugher carries on the wind.

________________________________________

The new world is not the one that Bellatrix has always envisioned. Instead of returning to Malfoy Manor, her Lord keeps his followers at Hogwarts. Or rather he keeps them at what is left of it. The house-elf population had been decimated in the battle and privately owned ones don't understand the intricate details of the Castle the same way. Repair work is slow and the Castle becomes a cold and miserable place.

If it was not for the wind the stench from the rotting bodies or the bonfires used to incinerate them would be unbearable. In one of the times her Lord had come to see Delphini and was watching her sleep Bellatrix cautiously asked why he had not merely got rid of them. Why were they burning in batches while the rest sat lying in festering heaps on the grounds?

"Symbolism my dear. Potter is dead. Yes. But there are those that do not believe in prophecy. There are those who believe they can make their own fate and as long as they exist then resistance is a possibility. Rebellion is buried in the heart of every man, women and child who was not on our side before the end. Understand?"

Not really, but it is safer to agree.

It is always safer to agree.

________________________________________

Bellatrix does not take Delphini into the grounds. She barely takes her out of the quarters their Lord has housed them in. The repairs have slowed further and Bellatrix cannot fault the reasoning. Why should a man with the pedigree of Corbin Yaxley spend his days repairing the Charm's corridor of his old school? It is not until he is informed he will be the next Charms master that the man makes progress.

Then it staggers as he is tortured for his previous lack of effort. 

Bellatrix is caught been frustration and amusement. 

When their Lord wants to place their child in the Chamber of Secrets Bellatrix feels her heart beat too fast. Lies will do nothing when faced with his skill so the truth is the only option left, 

"She is a mere babe. Though this chamber may be safe....is it not closed off and stuffy? I will not claim to be an expert b-"

"But, my Bella?"

There is warning in his tone and now Bellatrix feels fear. Not for herself because she would welcome the pain but for her babe. Not old enough to make mistakes. 

"She needs fresh air and social contact. She won't develop into what we dream of if she is isolated. We need to look into your forces for new babes that she can be around, as you said before my Lord. Narcissa can still bear. Draco is of age," Bellatrix stumbles, glad that her Lord is too focussed on rocking the babe to look at her. 

"Play dates then? It will be done. "

But the Castle still smells of death and Bella dreams of getting her child out of this nightmare. Even she knows children need to pull moist grass from its roots and get it plucked from their small hands before they can shove it in their mouths. It is part of growing up.

________________________________________

The winter is hard, long, and disgusting to smell but Delphi is protected from it in the chamber. The smell of death fades from the castle only for the strength of bile to fill the chambers Bellatrix and Delphini are finally moved to.

"Bella, I can't do this again," Narcissa pleads, "It nearly killed me -"

"Your Lord demands it. Give Delphi a cousin."

"I can't control that now, " Narcissa snarls before racing back to the bathroom. If Bella thinks she hears voices, it might have been 'she already had one and you killed her'.

**Author's Note:**

> This story/art is part of an anonymous fest: drizzle 2019. Reveals will be in mid-October. Please do not repost anywhere else without explicit permission from the original creator.


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